Frases de Joseph Addison

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“Um temperamento agradável pode compensar-nos da falta de beleza, mas a beleza não basta para nos indemnizar de um temperamento desagradável.”

“A alegria mantém uma espécie de amanhecer em nossa mente e a enche de serenidade firme e perpétua.”

“Depois da virtude, é o conhecimento o que eleva um homem sobre os demais.”

“Tudo o que é novo suscita na imaginação um raro prazer, porque ele enche a alma com uma agradável surpresa, gratifica sua curiosidade e lhe dá uma idéia do que antes não possuía.”

“A leitura é para o intelecto o que o exercício é para o corpo.”

“O homem se diferencia de todas as outras criaturas pela faculdade de rir.”

“É ridículo para um homem criticar o trabalho de um outro se não se distinguiu pessoalmente na mesma realização.”

“Uma mente satisfeita é a maior bênção que um homem pode aproveitar neste mundo.”

“A vida parece-nos curta, e as horas parecem-nos compridas; o nosso gosto seria alongar a cadeia, encurtando os anéis.”

“Os grandes essenciais
para a felicidade
nesta vida, são
alguma coisa para fazer
alguma coisa para amar
e algo por que esperar.”

“As cores falam todas as línguas.”

“Felicidade é alguém para amar, algo para fazer e algo para aspirar.”

“Nossas verdadeiras bênçãos aparecem para nós em forma de dores, perdas e decepções; mas tenhamos paciência, e logo devemos vê-las em suas próprias figuras.”

“Saúde e alegria mutuamente se geram.”

“Música, o maior produto que os mortais conhecem e tudo de celestial que escutamos aqui em baixo.”

“A amizade aumenta a felicidade e reduz o infortúnio, multiplicando a nossa alegria e dividindo a nossa dor.”

“O sol é para as flores o que os sorrisos são para a humanidade.”

“Dores de irmão exigem piedade de irmão.”

“Há diversos tipos de curiosidade; uma de interesse, que nos leva ao desejo de aprender o que nos pode ser útil, e outra, de orgulho, que provém do desejo de saber o que os outros ignoram.”

“Um bom livro é um legado precioso que o autor faz à humanidade.”

“Nunca encontrei companhia tão amigável como a solidão.”

“Uma mulher raramente pede conselhos antes de ter comprado seu vestido de casamento.”

“O fraco poderá lutar e vencer; perdoar, nunca.”

“O poeta nunca está inteiramente absorto nos seus pensamentos. O técnico está sempre.”

“A modéstia não é um simples ornamento da virtude; é também o seu guardião.”

“Não há nada que recebamos com tanta relutância como os conselhos.”

“O vinho transforma a indiferença em amor, o amor em ciúme e o ciúme em loucura.”

“Nations with nations mix'd confus'dly die,
And lost in one promiscuous carnage lie.”

“Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.”

“To be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.”

“Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.”

“I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism … were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.”

“These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.”

“A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.”

“I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the Middle of the Winter”

“That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?”

“Some virtues are only seen in affliction and some in prosperity.”

“There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a lady's head-dress.”

“The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.”

“The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.”

“To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.”

“An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.”

“Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?”

“There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.”

“A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.”

“I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em.
Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.”

“Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.”

“When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.”

“Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.”

“The honors of this world, what are they
But puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?”

“The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger: the first is a perpetual call upon them to propogate their kind; the latter to preserve themselves.”

“I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.”

“The cast of mind which is natural to a discreet man, make him look forward into futurity, and consider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at present. He knows that the misery or happiness which are reserved for him in another world, lose nothing of their reality by being placed at so great a distance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because they are remote. He considers that those pleasures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him every moment, and will be present with him in their full weight and measure, as much as those pains and pleasures which he feels at this very instant. For this reason he is careful to secure to himself that which is the proper happiness of his nature, and the ultimate design of his being. He carries his thoughts to the end of every action, and considers the most distant as well as the most immediate effects of it. He supersedes every little prospect of gain and advantage which offers itself here, if he does not find it consistent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality, his schemes are large and glorious, and his conduct suitable to one who knows his true interest, and how to pursue it by proper methods.”

“At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Discretion the more it is discovered, gives a greater authority to the person who possesses it: cunning, when it is once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings, cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.”

“Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.”

“The discreet man finds out the talents of those he converses with, and knows how to apply them to proper uses. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divisions of men, we may observe that it is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives measures to the society.”